Tam Nguyen’s old beef with the Merc…

The Little Saigon Inside blog cattily noted that there’s been some bad blood between San Jose City Council candidate Tam Nguyen, the front-runner after Tuesday’s primary for Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen‘s seat (they’re not related), and our dear newspaper:

Tam Nguyen was dismissed by the Mercury News Editors as a community activist with no experience. The scathing put down of him by the editorial as somebody who does not know how government works and worst of all, the Mercury News Editors did not bother to mention the fact that he is a practicing lawyer for over 20 years. Interestingly enough, he won a lawsuit against the Merc in 2000 for plagiarism. The Merc was ordered to pay him $40,000 for the damages.

— Little Saigon Inside

What’s up with that? Fourteen years ago, Nguyen, who published a San Jose weekly called SaigonUSA, accused our former Vietnamese-language publication Viet Mercury of copying a 28-word caption that was published on Nov. 5, 2000. The photo accompanied a story about the opening of the Vietnamese Catholic Cultural Center in San Jose.

Nguyen sought $5 million in alleged damages. After a judge dismissed five other claims — including emotional distress and fraud — Nguyen settled with Viet Mercury in May 2001 for $20,000.

“This was a nuisance lawsuit, ” James Chadwick, a Palo Alto attorney who represented Viet Mercury and the Mercury News, said at the time. “Rather than spend lots of money on legal costs, we decided to settle without admitting wrongdoing.”

Nguyen’s lawsuit also accused another Vietnamese paper, Nguoi Viet, a daily published in Westminster, of using material without permission. Nguoi Viet also agreed to pay $20,000 to settle the suit.